Smitten
by highland-daughter
Summary: He'd loved him since their first meeting and parting like this will only bring unimaginable pain. ONE-SHOT


_**Disclaimer (A.K.A. – WHY I CANNOT BE SUED):**__ All rights belong to DC Comics and Warner Bros. I own nothing. I am merely borrowing with the intent of returning everything. (Because if I don't return it I'll get in big trouble.)_

_**Warning (A.K.A. – READ THIS BEFORE YOU THROW A FIT):**__ This contains minor spoilers (though by now most everyone should have seen the movie) and it has minor __**SLASH**__ (not much just guy-on-on kissing). If that is not your thing then take your mousey and click the "back" button and find something more your speed._

_**Rating:**__ T (for language)_

_**A/N:**__ A Batman inspired one-shot. This one came to me while I was watching _Batman Begins_ with a friend who said, and I quote, "Ra's is totally smitten with Bruce." At first I laughed. Finding no true ground in the statement, until I really started thinking about it and as such this one-shot was born._

_**oOoOoOo**_

I watched him.

I trained him.

I guided him.

And I loved him.

I watched him now, trying to get the people in his house to leave, I wondered why I had ever let him go. Theatricality, it seemed, would forever be his specialty. But the guests, if one dared call them that, thought him to be joking. A few murmured that he was drunk. I knew the moment he heard the whispered thoughts because he downed the rest of his glass of champagne and swayed.

Cheap parlour trick. If they'd truly been watching him they would have known he had barely drunk anything all evening. They would have seen how alert his eyes were. Eyes I had spent many nights fantasizing over. And even more nights staring into with caring acceptance and love.

He let out a low sound, something no doubt meant to be interrupted as a drunken slur. But no one left. They all just stood there, staring, waiting to see what sort of an idiot he was when drunk. None of these people truly knew him. For if they did then they would know he did not drink. He was too strong willed to all himself to become intoxicated in any fashion. Even my hallucinogenic flowers had nearly failed because of his mental strength.

He took a step then, stumbling slightly, and I reacted as I often had when he'd been but my student.

I caught him.

I heard the hushed whispers even as his arm went about my shoulders. His gaze fixed with mine and I saw his surprise. He hadn't expected me to catch him. "Bruce," I said calmly, remembering how well he had always responded to my voice. I knew the chances he would even listen to me would be slim. "Bruce, this is pointless."

"It's not," he replied, still using a bit of a slur, seemingly needing to keep up the act. But I knew what his words truly meant. As he had known the truth of mine. "It's not."

"Bruce," I said, wishing he would just see reason and agree to help me. Not try to stand in the way.

He shook his head, tightening his hold on me. What on earth he was doing I couldn't have guessed. "You know, Ra's" he said, glaring at his guests for a moment, before looking at me. "You're the only person who understood. You were the only one who really gave a shit."

Several people gasped at his vulgar language but I merely rolled my eyes. Going along with his little act. Playing the annoyed friend. "I saw you were in need of guidance, Bruce, nothing more."

"No, no, no," he said, shaking his head, that silly little slur went a little deeper. "It was more than that and you damn well know it. You understood my anger. My grief. Because you knew what losing someone you love felt like. You shared so much with me and then I turned and all but spat on it. On all that we had. I regret that…I'll always regret that."

I saw the honesty in his eyes. He meant what he was saying. I started to reply but he glared at his guests again.

"But these…these vultures couldn't give a damn about me." He stepped closer to me. I was starting to loose grasp on what his plan might be. "They just keep trying to kiss my ass because of my family. And my money."

By now people were getting angry. Some had already left, but the majority remained, thinking this to still be some sort of joke. As his eyes once more returned to me I saw resolve in those dark depths. Resolve for what I didn't know. But I wanted to. He smiled slightly, no doubt trying to appear as drunk as possible.

"You gave me so much," he said, his voice a hushed whisper, and I swallowed passed the growing lump in my throat. My cool exterior gave nothing away about the turmoil that was raging within at the implication behind his words. "And I just threw it away. I'm sorry."

I was prepared for almost anything he would do next. But not what he actually did.

He kissed me.

Right there. In front of the people he was trying to protect. Trying to save.

I saw the shocked and horrified expressions but in less then a second my world narrowed in to nothing but his lips against mine. It had been so long since I had last tasted him that I indulged in it a bit more than I should have.

His little act seemed to have the desired effect as his guests hurried away.

When he stepped back I could help but feel slightly upset. He'd used me to his advantage. Not that I would ever chastise him being creative. It just stung knowing he'd used what we'd shared against other people. Even if those people were the very same people I was planning on killing.

Once it was just us, well us and my men, I cleared my throat. "Amusing," I said, maintaining my air of calm sophistication. "But pointless. None of these people have long to live. Your antics at the asylum have forced my hand."

"So Crane was working for you."

He always did stay on point so well. I nodded as we walked down a hall together, my men following, several already in place to do my bidding. "His toxin is derived from the organic compound found in our blue flowers," I found myself explaining. And why shouldn't he know? He had discovered so much on his own already. "He was able to weaponize it."

"He's not a member of the League of Shadows?"

"Of course not." His question hadn't been meant as a true question, more of a way of confirming what he already thought or knew. In another life Jonathan Crane might have made an excellent member of my organization. But in this one he was just as corrupt and decayed as the rest of Gotham. "He thought our plan was to hold the city to ransom."

He glanced at me. "But really," he said, sounding so calm when I knew he was trying to determine the best way to stop me. "You are going to release Crane's poison on the entire city."

"Then watch Gotham tear itself apart through fear." I felt pride that he already knew so much.

"You're going to destroy millions of lives."

I knew his compassion was strong and hearing him voice such compassion made me wish I'd never met him. For I knew he would never speak in such a way of me. "Only a cynical man would call what these people have lives, Wayne," I said, trying to distance not only my mind, but my heart, from him. "Crime. Despair. This is not how man was supposed to live. The League of Shadows has been a check against human corruption for thousands of years. We sacked Rome. Loaded trade ships with plague rats. Burned London to the ground. Every time a civilization reaches the pinnacle of its decadence we return to restore the balance."

I saw it in his eyes. Nothing I said would make a difference. His mind, and his heart, was set. There would be no swaying him from his path.

"Gotham isn't beyond saving," he said, staring me in the eye, as though attempting to convince me of this. "Give me more time. There are good people here."

I yearned to give him what he asked. I truly did. I believed in him that much. But if I did then I would appear weak and the hold I had over the criminals who knew me would falter and eventually vanish. "You are defending a city so corrupt we have infiltrated every level of its infrastructure."

His eyes changed. The hope fading away until only a cold certainty remained. I regretted being the one to put it there.

"When I found you in that jail, you were lost," I said, remembering that day. Remembering clearly the strength of heart he had demonstrated. The very reason I had chosen him to become my ally. "But I believed in you. I took away your fear, and I showed you a path. You were my greatest student. It should be you standing by my side, saving the world."

I watched his eyes change. It was slight, but I saw him remembering the countless nights spent in each others arms. But I also saw his decision. I had extended my hand to him once more only to have him deny me again. Well, this would be the last time.

"I'll be standing where I belong," he said, and my heart broke a little. I'd lost him forever it seemed. "Between you. And the people of Gotham."

"No one cane save Gotham."

I motioned for my men, who set about their tasks. "When the forest grows too wild, a purging fire is inevitable and natural. Tomorrow the world will watch in horror as its greatest city destroys itself. The movement back to harmony will be unstoppable this time."

"You attacked Gotham before?"

"Of course. Over the ages our weapons have grown more sophisticated. With Gotham we tried a new one. Economics." I knew the moment he realized what I was talking about. His face changed the slightest bit. "But we underestimated certain of Gotham's citizens such as your parents."

His face changed completely as he realized the true reason why his parents had been killed. My heart broke completely. I might have swayed him, after Gotham's fall, to return to me. Before when I had just been targeting people he saw as redeemable. But now, now he knew I'd played a role in the death of his beloved parents, and now he could never forgive me. He could never return to me.

I stepped around him, continuing to speak as though I did not realize he understood everything I had said. As the fire my men had set began to spread. "Gunned down by one of the very people they were trying to help. Create enough hunger and everyone becomes a criminal. Their deaths galvanised the city into saving itself and Gotham has limped on ever since. We are back to finish the job."

By now he had turned to face me. The anger was so clear on his face it seemed to be a living, breathing creature, ready to strike me down for being the cause of his pain.

"This time," I said, not certain why I continued to taunt him when all I wanted to do was hold him and beg his forgiveness. "No misguided idealists will get in the way. Like your father, you lack the courage to do all that is necessary. If someone stands in the way of true justice you simply walk up behind them and stab them in the heart."

One of my men dropped down behind him, but his quick reflexes enabled him to easily defeat the other man. I was not so easy an opponent. Our struggled last mere moments, but he blocked my strike and drew me in close. Our breaths mingling as he all but growled.

"I am going to stop you."

I smirked slightly, giving a slight tug which pulled him forward and allowed me to press my lips to his one final time. My decision had been made the moment I realized he would never truly be mine again. Time seemed to stop in those few precious moments that we kissed. And when I pulled back I saw the confused look in his eye. "You never did learn to mind your surroundings," I said, shoving him back and watching as his stumbled. A burning beam fell atop him. The impact with the floor rendered him just dazed enough that he would slip into an unconscious state long before the fire reached him.

"Justice is balance," I said, staring down at him. Fighting back the urge to save him as he had saved me. "You burned my house and left me for dead. Consider us even."

I turned and walked away then. Giving strict orders that no one was to come out of the house. As I climbed into the truck I had to keep fighting back the need to return to him. To save him, which might win me his love back, and whisk him away, back to my mountain where he would forever be mine and mine alone.

I knew it wouldn't matter. Even if I saved him, even if I whisked him away, he would never be mine. I had ruined any hope of that when I had told him of my involvement in the death of his parents. It was better to let him go. To let him die. Better his death be by my hand then a petty criminal. And like the wife I had loved before him I would see him again. One day. When my work was finished. When the world no longer required saving.

_**oOoOoOo**_

_**A/N: **__And there you have it. Not originally how I intended this all to work out but I think it turned out rather well. As always I ask I hope you enjoyed the story and if it's not too much trouble, would you please be kind enough to review._


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